Ask Me Anything: Soreness

Question)
I’m rarely ever sore. I work hard, I do heavy stuff, I don’t do anything particular for recovery. Why do you think that is? Do I need to be doing more?

Answer)

Most muscle soreness, including DOMS is usually attributed to completely normal micro-tears in the tissue caused by training. We used to think it was lactic acid, but more research is showing us lactic acid has nothing to do with soreness.

Regardless of the cause of soreness, we know it shows up when any of the following happen.

Large changes in regular physical activity.

Increase in intensity

Increase in Training Volume

Changing the type of training your doing.

If you change one or more of these factors drastically, you will likely find said soreness.

MY ONLY WARNING is for you to not associate soreness with results or increased performance. The two do not go hand in hand. Soreness only signifies that a change in the above factors has happened. It does not signify improvement.

So this is why you are not sore.

It’s also why we don’t get ripped low-back muscles that are sore from binge-watching Mystery Science Theater 3000.

You should not do more. (at least not to chase soreness)

The bigger question “Should I do more?” is better answered by watching your performance through repeating benchmarks often and watching biomarkers for overtraining. (Which can be a whole post in itself)